How many ways to fail at the same kayak roll?

Yesterday sucked. It is undeniably the worse day of every year. Well at least the past 6 years. It is the end of Emma’s summer visitation with us. I took her to the airport and put her on her flight out east. I had decided prior to yesterday that going rolling would be a good antidote to the blues that would inevitably set in. After leaving the airport I drove to the cabin by way of our house to get a change of clothes. Before rolling I had a few chores; cutting the grass, weeding, stripping the bed clothes. We have some guests coming on Friday for a little gathering so needed to smarten the place up.
After getting hot from the yard work I carried the Tahe out onto the dock and pulled on my Brooks Tuilik. Oh, that reminds me. Did I feel like an idiot recently? So, for about two years I keep thinking that the braces/suspenders on the tuilik are a nuisance. So I got out a sharp knife and was about to cut them off. To my surprise I discovered they were held on by Velcro and I could have peeled them off at any time I had wanted to. Duh. Now they are off and there is one less thing to snag during rolling.
Back to the rolling: My masik fell out last weekend so I beefed up the industrial strength Velcro and that had the effect of lowering it about a sixteenth of an inch which felt good. I had planned on recording some video for the rolling pages. I needed to replace the crook of the elbow video which was an old grainy video of Maligaq, I had also promised Bill at Lumpy Paddles a video of the norsaq mummy roll for his wife. And finally I wanted a new spine roll video for the roll of the day.


Darn, I had forgotten how to end the spine roll. I messed it up every way you can imagine. I rushed it. I dropped the paddle. I got my hands messed up. I realized two things. One, I do not practice rolling the different rolls enough. Two, I was distracted and needed to concentrate. Eventually I allowed myself to slow it down and remembered to angle the paddle out sideways. And then it worked okay. The end was not the best but it will do for now until I get more practiced.
Twenty intense minutes later I had lost the blues. I had some half decent rolls on video and took off home to edit them and get them uploaded. I still miss my girl and look forward to hearing her voice tonight. But at least I got my spine roll back. Oh and I did nail the norsaq mummy roll on the first attempt. Life is good (again).

Emma is there under that hat

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